NEW DELHI:
James Neesham
starred with the ball as New Zealand defeated Afghanistan by seven wickets in their
ICC World Cup 2019
clash at Taunton.
ICC WORLD CUP 2019: FULL SCHEDULE | POINTS TABLENeesham, who was adjudged Man-of-the-Match, grabbed his maiden five-wicket haul as he ripped through the Afghanistan batting line-up to bowl them out for a paltry 172.
Neesham rocked the Afghanistan innings by his incisive bowling and in the process returned with his career-best figures of 5/31 from his 10 overs. His earlier best was 4/42.
Neesham's pace colleague Lockie Ferguson claimed four wickets for 37 runs to throttle the Afghanistan innings.
Sent into bat, Afghanistan made a decent start with openers Hazratullah Zazai (34) and Noor Ali Zadran (31) putting on 66 runs between them. Hazratullah hit three fours in the first over bowled by Matthew Henry to show his intent.
But New Zealand hit back when Neesham induced a mistimed slog from Hazratullah, with Colin Munro taking the catch on the boundary to end the opener's innings of 34 from 28 balls in the 11th over.
Neesham had his second wicket in the form of one-down Rahmat Shah (0) in the 13th over and then dismissed captain Gulbadin Naib (4) before returning to grab two more wickets --
Mohammad Nabi (9) and Najibullah Zadran (4) -- in the 24th over to complete his fiver.
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